Petrol prices have been ticking up in recent weeks, mostly for seasonal reasons. But the broader picture, Mr Hamilton points out, is one of surprising stability in prices. For most of the last three years oil has hovered around $100 a barrel, and the price of petrol has been correspondingly flat.
But there is another way of looking at this stability; prices have remained relatively high in order to temper demand growth and keep it in line with available supply growth. But for the North American oil bonanza, global demand would have to have been considerably more muted; indeed, it may have needed to decline (at a time while the world economy was growing steadily). That would presumably have taken a far higher price of oil...............................................Full Article: Source